LJP President Ramvilas Paswan today challenged Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to carry out his threat to expose BJP leaders and sought to know whether Kumar would have jeopardised the 17 year long alliance if he had less than 100 JD(U) MLAs in the assembly.
“Would he have parted from BJP if JD(U) had less than 100 MLAs in the Bihar assembly ? It was a convenient decision on Kumar’s part to sever ties with NDA and rediscover his secular credentials as he knew that the split would not jeopardise his government with JD(U) having 118 and the independents assuring support,” Paswan told reporters here.
“What is Kumar waiting for? He should carry out his threat to expose BJP leaders if he does not want to keep the option of getting into a post-poll alliance with the saffron party,” he said.
Kumar had recently said that several BJP leaders would be in trouble if he opened his mouth in response to the continued attacks on him from his erstwhile ally BJP.
Paswan said contrary to whatever Kumar said to promote his secular image to woo Muslims, the fact was he had profusely praised Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi at a function in Kutch a decade ago and asked the people to forget the riots. He had then also asked Modi to play a national role saying the country needed his services.
“Is it a part of protocol to exhort a chief minister, who was reviled by the cross-section of political class for failure to control the riots, to play a national role?” the LJP leader asked sarcastically and wanted to know whether Kumar had praised any other political leader in the same vein.
“If Kumar claims to be a secular leader then why did he not resign as the railways minister after the 2002 Gujarat riots as I did ?”
On Kumar’s charge of ill-treatment of ‘elders’ in BJP like L K Advani, Paswan said he had no business to say so. “Everyone knows how Kumar had ill-treated George Fernandes and denied him a ticket from Muzaffarpur in 2009 and marginalised him in Samata Party and JD(U).
–PTI